Posted on 06/16/2015 3:21:43 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This Memorial Day weekend marked a historic uptick in violence in many U.S. cities. Three cities seem to symbolize our national woes the most—Baltimore, Chicago and Ferguson. In Baltimore nine people were killed and 29 shot. Chicago marked 12 killed and 44 wounded. The police in Baltimore and the other cities seem to be moving with unprecedented caution. Further, self-initiated policing has slowed down significantly. The morale of law enforcement officers is at a decadal low. Therefore, both violent and petty crimes may flourish in several "hot spot" cities this summer. In Ferguson, sky rocketing crime rates continue despite greater civic involvement by citizens and a massive change in municipal personnel. Law enforcement seems to be becoming more difficult in key cities.
Does the violence in these cities mark the unofficial beginning of a new season of urban violence? Is this the beginning of the worst season of both rioting and lawlessness the US has seen since 1968 after the assassination of Dr. King? Last September I wrote that rioting in DC was possible after the Ferguson riots broke out in August 2014. I had no idea that there would be such a dramatic increase in both incendiary rhetoric and demonstrations. Our cities are still vulnerable to problems and riots. 175 metro areas supported the "hands up don't shoot" initiative and 50 cities protested the death of Eric Garner with "I can't breathe" demonstrations. A myriad of cell phone videos from South Carolina to Mckinney, Texas have started to erode public respect for our policemen. There is no reason why there will not be more riots and spontaneous violence this summer—except for the grace of God.
We can turn this bus around, though! But it must be done very decisively and strategically. Smoldering "urban anger" is still burning. This is not just a race problem. There is an interplay between class, poverty and race. When all three of these things converge, people feel disenfranchised and excluded from the American dream.
As I discuss urban tensions at the water cooler or with my friends around the country, I find that black friends sometimes blame whites and invisible social barriers. Whites often declare that everything goes back to family break down or a lack of respect for authority. The family structure declaration is a great analysis but offers no immediate steps of action to mitigate the problems before us.
Part of the answer to the problem has to do with healing the huge sense of outrage and injustice that is felt among impoverished urban dwellers. Much has been said in the news about the debate concerning criminal justice reform. Many people believe that we are simply addressing problems of policing when we use the term "Criminal Justice Reform." The truth of the matter is that there are a myriad of minor adjustments to our systems that could create a greater sense of justice and peace in urban America.
Part of our dilemma is that we live in a society that is quick to label and stigmatize. Similarly, we can be slow to extend the hand of restoration, acceptance and forgiveness. There are over 65 million Americans with a criminal record in the U.S. today. Over 70 percent of ex-offenders have committed nonviolent crimes.
Once these people have served their time, they need to have an opportunity for redemption and to restore their lives. They need a shot at achieving their God-given potential. Eric Garner of New York was an excellent example of someone who was just not going to submit to being arrested again. His experiences with the legal system and his dealings with police no doubt entered into his decision to "buck authority" in Staten Island on the fateful day of his death.
To avoid urban riots this summer we need three things urgently: 1.) Regional prayer gatherings that make an appeal to heaven for justice and divine intervention; 2.) summer jobs for urban youth; 3.) grass-roots leaders need to come together and create local strategies to make their communities safer.
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Harry R. Jackson Jr. is senior pastor of 3,000-member Hope Christian Church in the nation's capital. Jackson, who earned an MBA from Harvard, is a best-selling author and popular conference speaker. He leads the High-Impact Leadership Coalition.
Peaceful marches are the backbone of the republic....
But, shoot all looters and destroyers of property
Summer jobs given by whom? And, at what pay? In my first job I earned about $1,100 that year and paid income taxes on it. It was a real job, as opposed to a job made up by a government where both parties know the job is just make believe work so they can give me free money.
How about, end welfare. Do away with the minimum wage. Do away with all those give-away’s that encourage behavior that guarantees future poverty. Start penalizing bad behavior rather than encouraging it.
Oh, and blacks, you may think the ghetto attitude, speech and dress gives you black cred. But it tells me that I can’t put you in a position where you’ll meet my customers. Learn how to talk, be polite and dress like you want a job where you can’t use one hand to hold up your pants.
How about these three things:
1) Abolish minimum wage
2) Make every state a right-to-work state
3) Get government out of the occupational licensing business
All three of the above create artificial market barriers to those with the least amount of education and skills, giving those who have more an even greater market edge than they already have. If we got rid of those, then we would return to the days when the unemployment rate among black youth was on a par with - or even lower than - the unemployment rate of white youth.
As soon as rioting starts, the NG comes in with orders to shoot and kill looters and people breaking into businesses. Of course, the local police are given orders to do the same. Any whining from the usual crowd would result in the arrest and detainment of the whiners as contributors to the violence.
“1) Abolish minimum wage
2) Make every state a right-to-work state
3) Get government out of the occupational licensing business”
I endorse you for President.
This is not just a race problem. There is an interplay between class, poverty and race
Sorry Sir, you missed.
It is a race problem tied to the Democrat Party.
For 50 years the black race has tied itself to the Democrat Party believing the party line that if you just vote for them you will have better lives. Well do you? No.
Most of the cities you speak of have been controlled by Democrat for decades. The poverty, crime, unemployment in those areas are staggering. Every election the Democrat promise that if you keep them in power they will change things will get better for you. You vote them back in and things get worse. Until you as a race learn and accept that the Democrat party only has ITS best interest at heart and dump them over the side will things get better in these cities and for you.........
A lot of the makework summer jobs for “disadvantaged youth” have disappeared; there is no more money to pay people pretending to work. While the lack of jobs is hurting the country as a whole, it is hardly to blame for blacks rioting - they didn’t want the jobs anyway.
Guess you would have to go to D.C.to arrest the chief troublemaker,
B.H.Obammy.
Whoa! Too much common sense, sir. Don't think for yourself. Follow the "popular wisdom" or you might end up in a re-education camp.
“Whites often declare that everything goes back to family break down or a lack of respect for authority. The family structure declaration is a great analysis but offers no immediate steps of action to mitigate the problems before us.”
Problem is,(IMO) most blacks do not want help from “whitey”. Just ask ‘em they’ll tell ya..................... You broke it, you fix it.
“A lot of the makework summer jobs for “disadvantaged youth” have disappeared; there is no money to pay people pretending to work. While the lack of jobs is hurting the country as a whole, it is hardly to blame for blacks rioting - they didn’t want the jobs anyway.”
True, but a lot of the REAL summer jobs for young people have disappeared, also - because those jobs are being done by adults! Seriously, I believe that one of the most damaging trends in the last 40 years has been the evaporation of jobs for young people. A lot of this was caused by namby-pamby regulation. I and my friends did jobs that would get the management of our employers thrown in jail today for “child endangerment” or some crap.
This was a great learning experience that is now basically flat gone. Whoever wrote “idle hands are the devil’s workshop” was right!!
Yep - if nothing else, it would generate a little "respect" for others' property.
I put a "Armed Community - Looters Will Be Shot" sign up at the end of our street after Katrina. A Florida Trooper (imported to MS for back-up) passed by and paused, noting the sign and the .357 on my hip. He touched the brim of his hat and drove on. Just as stealing a man's horse used to be a hanging offense, looting and pillaging should be a "shoot on sight" capital offense.
Unfortunately many urban mayors and city councils are social justice warriors themselves. (or more accurately, community organizers)
One of the things that makes Detroit different these days is the fact that the people look to police chief Craig for leadership rather than the city government. Obviously the city is a mess, BUT there has been no rioting even as Obama and friends have desperately tried to inspire it.
The chief is a no nonsense kind of guy who subscribes to the broken windows theory of crime prevention. More important is the fact that he’s out there every day talking to the people about how to create a place where business can feel safe and want to be. He points to Detroit’s past as well as Ferguson and Baltimore today and says to watch what happens to business in those other cities. Says people need to stop worrying about the color of the business owner, worry about the color of his money, and protect them all.
Just pull the cops out of the bad neighborhoods and everything gets fixed.
He’s right. Such high unemployment among youth and especially blacks in big cities - there is no sense of real worth, no sense in belonging to a great country, no sense of personal power.
Barack Obama is the one leader that could do something about this without cries of racism - sure it could be used for democratic gain, but the country needs it - a new CCC.
We complain that blacks had broken families, terrible education, so sense of civic responsibility, correct? This could do something to change that to a serious degree. Cost? Billions, and waste too, but so is our US AID and military entanglements - secure our country from withing, reclaim a lost generation while we still can!
I’d lea it, but I’m only trans-identifying as Obama today, I’m not really him. Tomorrow, I will “be” Gandhi.
(4) Abolish welfare. If every woman on welfare decided she needed a stable husband with a job more than an "exciting" thug, then inner city youth would find jobs.
It all comes down to what the young women decide they want in a man. Fix that, and you fix inner-city society. Before generous welfare programs, in the 1950's and earlier, black women were married at the same rate that white women.
If young black men need to be stably employed in order to get laid, then they will strive to be stably employed.
Dad was NYPD....he was in from 46-68... when I was a kid he told me that you shot looters and also fleeing criminals after a loud ‘stop or I’ll shoot’ shout out(and you could hear his big mouth from blocks away if he was calling me in)....
this was early on....by the time he left, it had all changed. he was glad to retire after 22 years. BTW he never shot anyone on police duty and only pulled his weapon once (he wouldn’t talk about WW 2)
“Bishop” Harry Jackson, of the First Church of Gibsmedat, is part of the problem. All “race and grievance”, all the time.
Clean up your own “community”, Your “Bishopness” ... and don’t steal even more from the rest of us (at gunpoint) to do it.
“’1) Abolish minimum wage
2) Make every state a right-to-work state
3) Get government out of the occupational licensing business’
I endorse you for President.”
I second the motion!
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